Companies strive to grow. As they grow, they can scale up their profit and hire more people to grow further. Eventually a company will reach an enterprise level status. Offices in multiple locations and thousands of employees to handle. It’s something of a dream to see a company grow, but the day to day logistics of thousands of people can become something of a nightmare. That’s where enterprise resource planning (ERP) software enters the fray. ERP software helps to manage and direct a variety of day to day activities that would otherwise eat up a lot of employee time and resources. What’s great is that ERP software allows a complete overview of the business if it’s needed. You can see everything that is going on with transparency and accuracy. While ERP systems thrive for enterprise level businesses, there are some which can also be beneficial to medium and small businesses as well. It depends on the features that are included in each offering. This article is going to look at some of those features and what ERP software can do. It will also mention some of the best options on the market with some brief highlighting of their best features.
What Can ERP Software Help With?
Some people confuse ERP software with “financials” software. It should be noted that “financials” is just some of the features that are often included in a good ERP software offering. That being said, there are a lot of benefits that come with erp software. Some of the benefits include:
- Enhanced Collaboration - With data clearly structured and transparent, it’s much easier for users to collaborate and share their data. This applies to many areas, including purchase orders, requisitions, or any kind of contract.
- Analytics and Insight - ERP software tends to come with robust analytics reporting options. This means that users can get information on just how the business is performing, as well as real-time information too!
- Lower Costs - As the old saying goes “time is money”. By automating and making tasks faster, employees don’t need to be paid for extra time and they can instead focus on other tasks.
- Efficiency Increases - This fits in with the previous benefit, as users will become more efficient. ERP software can clearly define functions and processes to ensure that the users are completing them accurately with a quick turnaround.
Best ERP Software
There are a lot of great software offerings for ERP. Each has their own benefits and their own weaknesses. Some of the most popular in the world include:
- Oracle NetSuite - This is certainly the #1 ERP software among businesses and the industry standard. NetSuite features financial activities, HR, service automation, inventory management and a host of other features.
- Sage Intacct - This is a wonderfully scalable ERP option. Like others, the core revolves around a host of different financial options. It also has strong analytics, dashboards and reporting options within it as well. One of the benefits of Sage Intacct is that it’s incredibly easy to use and intuitive to learn. This makes adopting it a good choice for a business which may not always feature employees with the most up to date technical knowledge.
- SAP ERP - SAP is a long term player in the field of ERP. This offering has everything a company could want. It excels in the areas of service, sales, manufacturing, and procurement. This is of course in addition to the standard financial uses.
Conclusion
While ERP software is clearly a useful item for any business, it thrives at the enterprise level. It has evolved from being beneficial in the financial realm to having a wide variety of uses throughout a company. There are a large number of wonderful ERP software offerings on the market, so finding one that fits a business’ needs is vital to get the most out of ERP software.